AACOMAS Grade Replacement is Dead: What Pre-Meds Need to Know

The End of the DO Loophole

For decades, Pre-Med students had a massive safety net.

If you failed Organic Chemistry, you knew that Allopathic Medical Schools (MD) via the AMCAS system would average the 'F' into your GPA, effectively ruining your chances.

But you could always apply to Osteopathic Medical Schools (DO) via the AACOMAS system.

Historically, AACOMAS allowed Grade Replacement. If you got an 'F' in Organic Chemistry, and retook it for an 'A', AACOMAS would completely delete the 'F' from their calculation. It was the ultimate backdoor for students with a rocky academic past.

In 2017, AACOMAS killed the Grade Replacement policy.

The New Brutal Reality

Today, the AACOMAS GPA calculation rules are virtually identical to the strict AMCAS rules.

If you fail a 4-credit science class and retake it for an 'A', AACOMAS does not forgive the failure. They take the 0.0 weight of the 'F' and the 4.0 weight of the 'A', and average them together.

Your final grade for those 8 attempted credits is effectively a 'C' (2.0).

What This Means for DO Applicants

Osteopathic medical schools are no longer the "easy" backup option for students with terrible GPAs.

Because Grade Replacement is dead, the average matriculant GPA for DO schools has skyrocketed. You now need a highly competitive 3.5 to 3.6 Cumulative GPA to feel safe applying to a DO program.

If you have a disastrous freshman year on your transcript, you can no longer fix it by simply retaking the classes.

The Only Way to Fix a Bad AACOMAS GPA

Because you cannot replace grades, the only mathematical way to fix a low AACOMAS GPA is massive volume.

You must enroll in a formal Post-Bacc (Post-Baccalaureate) or SMP (Special Masters Program). You will spend an entire year taking 30 credits of grueling, graduate-level medical sciences. If you get a 4.0 in an SMP, DO admissions committees will often overlook the bad undergraduate grades and admit you based entirely on your graduate-level reinvention.